Christmas in Death City
by Cardcaptor Ryoko
Summary: It's the Holiday season, and from exams before school lets out to Kid having both a Christmas tree and a Menorah, craziness is inevitable. Rated to be safe, may have a bit of SoulMaka and other pairings in chapter 2.
1. Twas Eight Days Before Christmas

A/N: if fanfics are the result of my Internet going belly-up on me after a rain storm, then I guess Arizona needs more rain. The funny thing was that this was originally going to be a one-shot; and technically it can still read like one. However, I didn't want to make it too long, so I divvied it up into two bite-size chapters… well, not really bite-size. This chapter alone is five pages on Word without an author's note. But regardless, I hope you enjoy this second helping of holiday fan fiction this year! Warning, this one might start a bit slow.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Soul Eater or Rugrats (the latter is referenced).

OOC/SCREWUP WARNING: this is my first ever Soul Eater fanfic, so there is a slight chance I may have misportrayed some of the more subtle characters like Liz and Tsubaki (maybe even Soul and Maka to an extent).

**Chapter 1: 'Twas Eight Days Before Christmas**

_Maka and Soul_

"Done," Maka thought aloud as she collected the final draft of her term paper from the printer. Looking outside, she realized that the downpour that had started during the lunch period still hadn't let up. Gray skies accompanied the drizzle, and even when it stopped for a moment, water still dripped in larger drops off the edge of the roof. Christmas was but eight days away… yet rain was all they got. No snow, not even hail, just cold winter rains plagued Death City. Could things get any more depressing? With exams the next two days, Maka doubted they could.

All of her studying for the exams had been completed within the same course of typing that term paper. In fact, the aforementioned document more or less reviewed everything that was revealed to be on the test. Should she go another round, just to make sure she had all the more important concepts down and wouldn't draw a blank at any of the questions, or would fixing something to eat be more beneficial? This was the decision that faced her now. On one hand, one last review wouldn't hurt. On the other, part of doing well on any test entailed good eating habits and getting enough sleep.

A loud gurgling from her stomach quickly resolved that debate.

"Soul, I'm making dinner. Do you want anything specific, or…" It had just occurred to Maka that Soul didn't even look like he was making any form of effort to study. He was just sitting there on the living room couch, remote in hand, watching TV, in the exact same position in which she left him. "Done cramming already? Or are you going to try and cheat again like last time…?"

"Maka," Soul started.

"That doesn't answer the question."

"Oh, about cramming?" Soul sat up surprised, looking a bit more alert than when he was staring like a zombie at the television. "Yeah, I'm done. Only took a few minutes actually…"

"Really now?"

"Yep, really."

"If that's so, then I'll go over the subject matter with you again while I make dinner; another review won't hurt, right?" Maka's lips curved upward in a smirk.

Soul was cornered. If he objected, what were the chances that she'd walk back into her room and leave him to starve? Not that he wouldn't be able to pop something in the microwave or call for pizza, but neither appealed to him at the moment. And if he admitted he hadn't studied at all whatsoever, he'd just be proving her suspicions right. His head hung in defeat, he shuffled over to the kitchen table, where Maka was already setting bowls and silverware for the two of them, a set of note cards sticking out slightly from her pocket. Had she planned this further in advance than he realized? Or were they a mere scare-tactic…? He couldn't however deny that he had seen her use some kind of note-card set with Tsubaki before class to quiz each other over the past few weeks, so for all he knew they could be the same ones. Either way, he knew he wasn't prepared to answer any of the questions written on them. Time to use the distraction tactic. But what…? An idea sparked in his head as Maka plugged in the radio and turned the tuning dial to that one station of all the radio stations within airway range of Death City that was known to play continuous Christmas music at this time of year.

"Hey Maka?" Soul addressed her as she was pulling out a large pot, the one that came complete with a strainer. Pasta was likely to be the name of the game that night.

"What?"

"Why do we celebrate Christmas if we're not even Christians?"

This question left Maka dumbfounded, and it showed. Soul continued to look at her intently. There was no way around his question – and why was he asking it in the first place?

"Well," she started. "I think it's because of the traditions that go along with it, or that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with them. Or maybe it's just for the presents and an excuse to pig out on December 25th, I don't know."

"And you're supposed to spend it with your family, right?" The last response Maka wanted to hear.

"If you're suggesting I do anything with my Dad this Christmas, you're insane." As though on queue, the phone rang with her father's name on the caller ID. She picked up the receiver and hung it up within half a second. Almost as quickly she quieted Soul's snickering with a swift Maka-chop. "Why don't you just admit you haven't even thought about studying yet?"

"Whatever, you got me," Soul replied practically on the drop of a pin. What was the use of hiding it, after all? She would've figured out sooner or later anyway.

"Then it's your own fault if you fail the exams." She flipped the faucet knob in the opposite direction to stop the water flow into the pot and placed the pot on the stove, setting the heat to high and leaving the water to boil as she took out two cans of sauce and a few fresh tomatoes. Maka figured she was still hungry anyway; there was no point in denying Soul a good dinner that night just because he hadn't studied. As she had stated, he'd reap the rewards of his behavior in due time. That didn't however mean she wouldn't quiz him on certain concepts now and again throughout the night.

_Kid, Liz and Patty_

"It's not possible…" Death the Kid stammered in shock at the sight. The tinsel hanging above the doorway to the living room was just a tenth of a smidgeon off. The wreath on the door looked lopsided, and to some extents he thought there might be one too many decorations on one side than the other. On top of all that, Patty constantly burning the candles on the coffee table for her pure enjoyment made them uneven. "This is a disaster!" He hastily grabbed a ladder from a random closet and propped it up so he could reach, and hopefully fix, the tinsel. In the meantime, Patty was still burning the gingerbread-scented candles purely for the sake of blowing them out again when enough of the wax had melted… and then proceeding to stick her finger in the melted candle wax.

"You know, one of these days you're gonna burn yourself doing that," Liz remarked to her sister as she continued in her mindless activity with another candle after the wax in the other one had begun to solidify again. To Liz, at least, the warning had fallen on deaf ears. But then not even Kid's countless pleadings before to at the very least burn both at the same rate were yielded to. While Kid proceeded to freak out and attempt to remedy any small minute detail about the Christmas decorations that wasn't absolutely perfect, Patty was completely oblivious. He rearranged the lights on the Christmas tree ten times over to get just the right amount of lights on each side, took off all the ornaments and placed them on the tree again twice to ensure an even balance of lights and ornaments, and for one reason or another, he removed the star and did not at that time put it back on again. He hung the stockings in such a way that they would still appear to be symmetrical despite the uneven sum that was the number three, though it took him five times to get it just the way he wanted. The good thing about this all though was that it kept him sidetracked from what she was doing with the candles again, and the inevitable symmetry of his hair – or lack thereof.

As for Liz, she was honestly bored. To some extent, she felt as though she were forgetting something, something vitally important that needed to be done that day. It couldn't be the Christmas shopping; she had taken care of that ages ago… but maybe she should double-check Kid's gift to make sure it won't make him freak out because of one thing or another. She sat up from the couch and went to her room to do so. Everything was in order there. Then what could she be forgetting? Decorations? Kid was handling that right now – he was the only one he'd allow to put up the decorations, and such would be keeping him busy for quite a while. She looked in the mirror to see if there was anything relating to personal grooming that she may have forgotten. Other than having broken a nail, which there wasn't anything to be done about, there wasn't anything of extreme concern there. If it was none of these, then what was she forgetting…? She walked back into the living room where Kid was still frantically working about the decorations, finally setting to the task of putting the star back on the tree. And on the mantle right next to the Christmas tree sat a strange structure that Liz had only seen on a Rugrats TV special back in her early youth. It was a candlestick with eight placeholders, eight unlit, perfectly even candles set in these places. While she didn't quite recall what the strange device was called, she knew it had nothing to do with Christmas, but another holiday altogether. What was it called again, though? That she couldn't entirely recall. It didn't take long for Patty to notice what could be her next plaything, however. She quickly blew out the candle she had already lit and didn't even bother to play with the wax before she ran over to the candlestick, lighter in hand.

"Patty!" Kid shouted at her from the top of the ladder where he was propping the star for the fifteenth time that night. "Don't even think about touching any of those candles! Take the others in your room for all I care, as long as they're out of my sight. But whatever you do, don't touch that Menorah!" _Menorah!_ Liz finally remembered the name. But she still was confused. Weren't Menorahs for the Jewish Hanukkah?!

"Ohh…" Patty mused. "Okay!" She left the Menorah as is and took the candles with her lighter into her room. Now was the only time Liz could see that she could question him on his rather odd addition of decoration.

"Kid, why is there a Menorah on the mantle?" Liz asked bluntly. "You know that Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday, right?"

"So, Christmas is a Christian holiday and we still celebrate it," Kid replied as he stepped down from the ladder. Apparently the star was finally arranged to his satisfaction. "Besides, look at the symmetry of it! Eight candles in perfect order! Besides, just because we have a Menorah doesn't mean we celebrate Hanukkah."

"Typically, to other people it would seem so."

"Well let them think what they will! It's symmetrical, so it stays." He then proceeded to fold up the ladder and place it back where it was before. "Now that I've finished decorating, I can study for the exams and type up that term paper."

It was then that it dawned on Liz what she had forgotten that she needed to do.

_Black Star and Tsubaki_

"Ya-Hoo!" Black Star shouted in triumph into the rainy night. He had successfully obtained the answers to the exams, and this time nothing had gotten in his way. But as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop to get back home with his loot, he began to actually think for maybe the fifth time in his entire life. His mission was _too_ easy to accomplish. Last time, one of the teachers had beaten him to a bloody pulp and used him as a public example to the rest of the class the day of the test. This time, no one was in sight at all. He shrugged and assumed it was his greatness that had pulled him through this time around and continued roof-hopping through the rain. Yet something was nagging at the back of his mind. Not on the easiness of obtaining the answers, but something else that he had forgotten to do. A man in a red suit with white, fluffy trimming standing outside a supermarket was all it took to spark his memory.

"Crap, I've still gotta get Tsubaki's Christmas present!" He exclaimed in panic. How could he, the great Black Star, the man who would one day surpass God, have forgotten something so simple as purchasing a Christmas gift for his partner? No less, he jumped down from the roof in what he thought to be a discreet manner (but really drew everyone's attention to him) and pocketed the exam answers before entering the nearest store. When he discovered it was the supermarket and only sold food and tabloids with little credibility, he exited and continued to walk down the street in search of a store that sold the item he was looking for. While he didn't know particularly just what he was looking for, or if he had the money, neither of these crossed his mind until he finished scanning every store in town, without finding anything that Tsubaki might particularly like.

Well that was sad… he didn't even know his partner well enough to be able to buy her a simple gift in a traditional holiday gesture. He searched his pockets to see if he even had money and felt a folded piece of paper. It then dawned on him… the test answers? Would he share his knowledge with her? Nah, she wouldn't accept that kind of gift. On top of that, it would be almost a week earlier than the gift is traditionally to be received. And to make matters worse, he didn't even have enough money on him to buy an item from the dollar store. So he had to give up, for the time being. Still, he swore to the heavens, "I will get that present before December 25th! Just you wait!"

"Just a couple more paragraphs and I'll be finished," Tsubaki thought aloud as she sat at her desk, fingers clacking away at the keyboard working on the same term paper that Maka had just finished. As she did so, a set of notes she had taken in class the past few days sat on a clip-board as her reference material. The printer was plugged into her laptop and had just recently had the paper feeder filled after Black Star used the last of what was there before to "pass out autographs," and the printer also had a brand-new ink cartridge installed just for the occasion. She managed to finish one of the two paragraphs remaining to conclude her paper when she heard the front door slam. "You mean he actually got the test answers without getting caught?" She asked herself as she turned her head in curiosity. Something like this happening was not likely for him, and she knew it just as well as everyone else who knew the boy. Her suspicions of something fishy going on were confirmed by a surprised yelp of shock. Sighing in annoyance, she sat up from her chair and went out into the front room to see what had occurred now. There he was, staring in utter confusion at the sheet of paper he held in his hands. Tsubaki, now curious as to what could have gone wrong, walked over to read over his shoulder. Surely enough, it was not the test answers that the two beheld, but a blurred mass of incomprehensible scribbles in smudged splotches of ink.

"Maybe that's a sign you shouldn't cheat on the tests anymore," Tsubaki finally broke the steady silence that was merely dented by the sound of the drizzling rain as she headed back in the direction of her room to finish the term paper.

A/N: Chapter two will be coming at you soon! … Hopefully. Since I'm just going over this one last time before uploading this chapter on Christmas Eve, if I'm willing to stay up later than I already am chapter 2 may be up earlier than I thought. In the meantime, Happy Holidays!


	2. A White Christmas? In Death City?

A/N: Okay. It is 11:52 on Christmas Eve, and I don't know why I'm even up right now. But no less, I will finish this fanfic tonight! I hope… okay, maybe not. But I'll at least start it, then finish it tomorrow. Hopefully I won't sleep in until noon after staying up this late.

DISCLAIMER: see chapter 1; also, I do not own Frosty the Snowman

OOC/SCREWUP WARNING: see chapter 1, yet a little more emphasized in this chapter due to the fact pairings may be more distinct in this chapter.

**Chapter 2: a White Christmas?!**

_Maka and Soul_

**Bbrrrriiing!**

"Hello?" Maka answered the phone half asleep from her bed, this time not bothering to look at the caller ID. Besides, even if it was her father or someone else she didn't want to talk to, it's Christmas. She figured she could at least give the courtesy of giving a response on this one day of the year. She didn't all too much like the fact that it was barely six in the morning, but she figured she'd fall back asleep as soon as the call was over.

"Maka! You didn't hang up this time!"

Oh. Of course, it was her father.

"Merry Christmas, Papa," Maka replied, rolling her eyes as she did so. "What else do you want?"

"Is that all?" Spirit asked from the other line. "No plans on coming to see me for Christmas? I have a present for you! And there's even snow outside right now!"

"I'll pick up the present later unless you're planning on bringing it h – wait, say that again?" Maka wasn't sure if she could believe her ears. Did he just say there's _snow? HERE?!_ Maka sat up in bed with a jolt, hanging up the phone in the process (much to Spirit's dejection) and ran to the window in her room. Surely enough, a sight she never thought she'd see in her entire life lay beyond the glass barrier: the surrounding scenery was covered in a white, frozen blanket of snow. Sure, the weather station predicted a "wet Christmas," with showers akin to a week ago. But she doubted anyone expected this, even Shinigami-sama.

"You saw it too?"

Maka turned to her bedroom door. No one was in sight. But what was it then? She knew it was Soul – she'd been living under the same roof with him too long to not recognize his voice. Shaking it off, or assuming he was hiding somewhere in the room while she was gazing at the winter wonderland out her window so as to scare her, she returned to her previous activity.

"Boo."

"ACK!" Maka nearly jumped out of her skin to see a pair of bright red eyes on a head topped with silver-white hair and adorned with Soul's same old sharp-toothed grin. That grin, however, soon broke into laughter. Soul's attempt to scare her worked brilliantly. "It's not funny," Maka protested. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"I know," Soul replied. "That was the intent, dummy. Still, you should've seen the look on your face when you were looking outside the window. You were just sitting there gawking like you've never had a white Christmas before."

"That's exactly the case. I grew up around here, mind."

"Meh, it's not that big of a deal when you live where I grew up," Soul remarked. "Every year, without fail, more than a foot of this stuff covered the ground everywhere you look." Suddenly his smirk from earlier returned, this time with a hint of mischief twinkling in his eyes.

"What?"

"After you open your present, get some very warm clothing on. This'll probably be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you; better make the best of it."

"Present?" This was news to her. As far as she knew Soul had either forgotten or was too broke to buy her anything. Or by his "Why Christmas" question last week he implied one of the former two options. She had still bought a present for him – a new headband so he wouldn't always have to wear the one he had before – but without expecting much of anything in return. It's better to give than receive, she figured. Less even than the prospect of any form of material gift did she expect Soul to pull out a clump of mistletoe hanging from a red ribbon and hang it over them from his finger. "Uh, Soul, what're you do –" she was interrupted by his lips pressing softly against hers, at least for a brief moment, before he pulled away again. Maka couldn't see her own face, but she was positive her cheeks were glowing a bright red after that. As it was she could already feel that part of her face warming up. Soul broke the silence that lingered afterwards with a low chuckle.

"That's not even the actual present. Look in your pocket." Maka complied and put her hand in her pocket to find just what it was he was talking about. After a few moments of fishing through the thing, she pulled out a small red box with green ribbon tied about it. She untied the ribbon and opened the box to find… a choker? The strip of black cloth had a silver latch and bore a matching pendant in the shape of a soul.

"… Okay. It looks nice, I suppose," she said slowly as she began to put it on, only for Soul to take her hands in his, remove them from the latch, and put the choker on her himself. "First you kiss me and now this?" Soul simply shrugged in response.

"What can I say? Thought I'd be cool about it –"

"Normally kissing a girl is considered more 'romantic' than 'cool.'"

"Whatever, I thought it up at the last minute," he quickly retorted so as to justify his actions. "Still, if anyone asks that never happened." He turned around and began to walk toward the door. "Now hurry up and get changed; I'll take care of breakfast this morning, if you don't mind microwave oatmeal."

_Kid, Liz and Patty_

"You… got new outfits for us?" Liz asked questioningly as she looked dumbfounded into an open box, which contained an outfit just about identical to what she and her sister commonly wore now, except the top was now in black leather and the hat was matching in color.

"I figured since a new year's coming up I'd mix things up a bit. The bottom's the same, but the top matches better with my suit," Kid replied matter-of-factly. It was a bit obvious his OCD affected his selection in gifts for his two partners. "Oh, and thank you for the leveler, Liz. Hopefully it'll make next year's decorating a bit easier on me." Both Kid and Liz just sat there beneath the Christmas tree, the Menorah, surprisingly untouched, sitting on the mantle. Next to the Menorah now were two new gingerbread-scented candles, one on each side of the eight-candle stick: Patty's gift to make up for the ones she had rendered out of synch. "Now we just have to take them down in an organized manner."

"Will you relax for once? It's Christmas, the decorations can be taken down tomorr –"

"FROSTY!"

Patty's voice could be heard shouting through the open window. Apparently no one had noticed it had snowed except for her until then. Thus Patty was the only one outside actually enjoying it – by building a snowman that, surprisingly, actually did have somewhat of a resemblance to the typical image of Frosty the Snowman. Its eyes were made of two lumps of coal that Patty had found in an old fire pit, the nose was a button from a shirt that no longer fit her, and she had somehow managed to scrounge up a corn cop pipe. The only thing that was different was instead of a silk hat Patty had placed the hat she had just gotten from Kid with her new outfit on its icy head. Despite all this however, Kid was far from impressed when he and Liz ran out the door to see what caused such commotion.

"That's a lame excuse for a snowman!" Kid exclaimed. "You need fresh coals that are perfectly even for his eyes, not old ones from the fireplace! And if the eyes are from black coals, the button nose should be red, not banana yellow. And the pipe needs to be positioned this way…" Kid continued to tell Patty all the reasons that the snowman was made all wrong, and to demonstrate proceeded in making two perfect spheres of snow to start from scratch.

Liz looked on at the scene for a while, but then her eyes began to wander across the rest of the area – the street, the buildings, all covered in snow. After hers and Patty's first Christmas with Kid, she thought that the sisters' white Christmases had ended in New York. Not that they had much to celebrate back in those days, not since they were living on the streets anyway. To be able to actually experience both snow and Christmas at one time in these far better circumstances must have been nothing short of those warm and fuzzy things known as Christmas miracles, the kind that Liz had stopped believing in long ago. Even now, she wasn't sure she believed in such things, but this year certainly pushed her total denouncing of the thought to curious doubt.

_Black Star and Tsubaki_

Black Star was the first to wake up that morning, naturally, and forgetting the standing tradition of him and Tsubaki opening their gifts together, he hastily tore the wrapping paper off the small box with a name tag "to Black Star" on it, hoping it wasn't a jewelry item. Just before he was about to thrust the lid of the box open, the sound of footsteps on the carpet behind him and a small yawn alerted him to Tsubaki's presence in the room.

"You forgot about me again, didn't you?" She asked, still half-asleep it sounded like. That morning, she had her jet-black hair down rather than in its usual pony tail, a rarity in and of itself next to seeing her out of her room before she had changed out of her pajamas. Despite her inquiry, however, she already seemed to have forgiven him. Or she was too tired to get upset, one or the other. Either way, she simply sat down next to him by the tree as he then opened the box to find a small, glossy sheet of paper with a black star-shaped figure on it.

"… What is it?" Black Star asked bluntly, looking at Tsubaki in utter confusion.

"Well," Tsubaki started. "Honestly, I couldn't think of anything you might like, so I got you a fake tattoo. But it's the thought that counts, at least…" Black Star nodded and continued to look at the paper front and back, having no idea how to apply it. Tsubaki interpreted his confusion and gently took the paper. "Here, I'll show you how to put it on." She peeled off the plastic cover and went to the kitchen, coming back with a wet wash cloth. "Now if I remember how to do this right… Where do you want it?"

"I don't know…"

"That doesn't help," she replied. Tsubaki then took the time to notice her own parcel underneath the tree. She took it in her hands and slowly began to untie the ribbon on it. After doing so, she removed the wrapping paper and found a box. "Please don't tell me –"

**THWACK!**

_All_

"Watch this," Soul beckoned Maka as he began to clump together a round mass of snow between his gloved hands. They now stood in front of where Black Star and Tsubaki lived; apparently Soul wanted to involve _everyone_ in Maka's first white Christmas, deciding first to strike upon the arrogant assassin and his quiet yet warm-hearted partner. Before Maka could object or attempt to stop her own partner from doing something stupid, Soul threw his newly formed snow ball at the front window. The snow hit the window with a strange "thwack" sound and slid down the window.

"Soul, what're you _doing?!_"

The "thwack" brought both of their attentions to the window from which it came. One couldn't quite tell which of the two was more shocked to see snow on the ground when they looked out into the landscape beyond their home. Standing there, obviously the culprit was a boy with blood-red eyes and stark, white hair that almost seemed to blend in with the snow. Standing beside him was a girl, more or less the same height, with dirty-blond hair and green eyes. Both were wearing jackets that otherwise would have little use regardless of what time of year it was where they lived. Both identified the two as their classmates, Soul Eater and Maka.

"I never knew we could get snow here," Black Star stated.

"Neither did I…"

No less, it didn't take long for Black Star to respond to Soul's challenge.

Meanwhile, Liz and Patty had accompanied Death the Kid to the only store that was open that day which carried coal and after that outing was through both walked down the road on their way home. Why the shinigami had insisted on using fresh, never-burned coal for making eyes on a snowman, one of the many things that are even more fragile than the human heart. On top of that, she was freezing her butt off!

"Might I ask," Liz started, "Why we went to the store for an entire bag of coal when we only need two coals?!"

"Four if Patty decides to follow my example of a perfect snowman," Kid corrected. "And if you make one too, that makes six. See, I'm investing for the future."

"More like you just bought the whole bag because they don't sell coals individually." The three's stroll was interrupted by yet another sight that doubtless would accompany something like a snowy Christmas day.

"Ya-Hoo! You'll never defeat me!"

"Wanna bet?! I can throw a mean – " _thwack!_

That was when they beheld the scene that altered their course altogether. Black Star and Soul were engaged in a snowball fight possibly to exceed all snowball fights. Both had built forts of snow-bricks behind which they hid behind as they launched snow balls at one another at a frightening speed. To speed production, Soul had enlisted the reluctant Maka to mass-produce snow balls for him to use as ammunition, while Tsubaki had luckily managed to stay out of the mess, standing on the sidelines as she made a small snowman of her own. The bag of coal fell to the snow as Patty, the one who had been carrying it back to their home, ran into the line of fire, hastily creating snow balls of her own and throwing them every which way. Unfortunately, one of the prices of this was the head of Tsubaki's mini-snowman.

"Well, I guess we're stuck participating in this now that Patty's gotten involved," Liz remarked. Before she could even finish her sentence, however, Kid was already carefully constructing his first snow-brick to make his team's fort.

On and on the epic battle of snow dragged, until finally all three sides had grown tired of the activity (even Patty) and simultaneously collapsed backwards into the snow. Maka waved her arms back and forth, as though in a weak effort to create a snow angel.

"You use your legs too," Soul corrected her in between deep breaths; aside from maybe Black Star, he was the most exhausted from the adrenaline rush of the snow war. Despite this however, he still managed a small laugh at Maka's naivety. He demonstrated with his own arms and legs for extra emphasis.

"Oh," she replied. Soon, everyone else was making their own snow angel of sorts. Kid's by far took the longest, with him constantly sitting up to overlook his handiwork and ensure it was just right, then when seeing any portion was the slightest bit awry destroying and re-creating it. Though the others laughed at his OCD kicking in, he didn't see it as a laughing matter at all. The rest of the day went in a similar manner, from making snowmen again (which Kid insisted on teaching each and every one of them how to make a perfect snow man with just coal as the pieces – ironically the whole bag was used up when all was said and done), to attempting to form an igloo from the remaining walls of the old snow-ball-war forts… and such didn't quite work. But of one thing all were sure: this certainly would be a Christmas to remember.

_Spirit_

_Tak, tak, tak_

No matter how many times Spirit knocked on his daughter's door, no one was there to answer. The man crawled into the fetal position in despair, blubbering about why his daughter wouldn't acknowledge him.

"Honestly, where do I keep going wrong?" he asked himself – well, partially himself, and partially Blair, standing in human form beside him, dressed in an ever-so-revealing red and white two-piece dress, her stomach fully exposed. How had the voluptuous cat-woman not suffering from frost bite due to the cold weather? She changed into her cat form outdoors.

"Maybe they just aren't home," Blair replied. The man had to admit, she had a point. It was a bright, snowy day after all; the first time it's ever snowed on Christmas day – the first time it's snowed in general and stuck to the ground for more than a minute before melting into slushy rain – for a long as Maka could remember. Spirit knew full well that Soul grew up in a place where snow on Christmas was typical and must be showing Maka just what fun a "white" Christmas could be. It wasn't until then however that he noticed at his feet the mistletoe that Soul had carelessly discarded as he dragged Maka out the door. The plant, most likely fake to begin with, sat forlorn and forgotten in the hallway. This was all it took for the father's imagination to collide with instinct.

"SOUL EATER, YOU BETTER NOT BE DOING ANY FUNNY BUSINESS WITH MY DAUGHTER!!" Spirit shouted as he forcefully kicked the door down to find an empty house. The TV sat collecting dust, not even having been turned on that day. The sink was devoid of any dishes, all having been loaded into the dishwasher that had rung its "finished" bell hours ago. Spirit ran through the house, checked every room. Still, neither his daughter nor the demon scythe whom he at that particular moment absolutely hated, were to be found.

"I told you, they're probably out in the snow," Blair stated matter-of-factly, trotting behind him in her cat form.

A/N: yikes… if this were all in one file, it would've been my longest one-shot ever. Or it would've been tied with "Wild Wild West?", but either way it's probably a good thing I split it into two chapters. And now it's 10:23 pm Christmas day; this fic is finished. For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you all had a good one. Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yule to all, and to all a good night!


End file.
